Thawing apparatus.



W. S. NEWHALL, S. W. LINN-8c A. G. HEZLEP.

THAWING APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILED D150. 29, 1911.

Patented Nov. 12, 1912.

4 SHBETSSHE'ET 1.

w l'rwzascs W. S. NEWHALL, S. W. LINN & A. G. HEZLEP. THAWING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION I'ILED DBQ. 29, 1911.

4 SHEETSSHEET 2.

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- WJM FWTQPN w. s. NEWHALL, s. W. LINN & A. c. HBZLEP] THAWING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 29, 1911.

Patented Nov. 12, 1912.

4 SHEETSSHEET 3.

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w. S. NEWHALL, S. W. LINN & A. C. HEZLEP.

THAWI NG APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILED DEC. 29, 1911.

Patented Nov. 12, 1912.

4 $HEETSSHEET 4.

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WM an 19d; F\T'TQ RN tving at Cleveland, in the county and State of Ohio,

.WALTER S.- NEWHALL, SCOTT W.

OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

LINNQFAND nssrenons TO THE CLEVELAND RAIL ALVA c. HEZLEP, or IIEVELAND, onro,

THAWING APPARATUS.

To all whom it may concern.

Beitknown that we, WAL'rnR S. NEWHALL,

Soo'rr W. LINN, aHd'ALX A C. HEZLEP, residof'Cuyahoga Apparatus, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

The object-of this invention is to provide an cflicient apparatus for quickly thawing;

material in freight cars,-the invention bebuilding provided with tracks in which cars have invented a certain new-and useful Improvement in Thawing of which the following is a full,

Specification of Letters Batent. Applicationfiled December 29, 1911.

of material to be thawed maybe run, and

suitable means for heating air and giving it.

a forced circulation through the building;

and in contact with the cars and contents.

. In carrying out the invention we have; devised a long building .or shed having tracks and provided with closing doors at its ends and with insulating walls and roof, and we have provided a blower, a heater and air. ducts so arranged that air is circulated throughout the building and reheatedin its passage. We provide the main outgoln'g'and return air ducts in the space between the roof and an underlying ceiling,

" the outgoing duct being continued down- .wardly by a series of vertical ducts along the walls which discharge the air near the bottom oi thecars, the return duct being in 5 communication with the upper portion of the room below the ceiling. We have ar ranged the blower house or houses in the v I I fl-blower houses 13, two of these houses being blowers may communicate directly with the spacebetween the roof and ceiling. These;

various features, as well as novel details in carrying-cut the same, including the ari rangements of the ducts and theinsulationf are included within our invention.

Accordingly, our invention may be most conveniently summarized as consisting of [the combinations of parts herein illustrated".

and described and-setout particularly in the a claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a vertical. cross section through the heating shed. Fig. 1 is a similar cross-section through shed I Patented Na... 12, 1912. Serial No. 668,380.

atone of the blower houses. The planes of t'hese sections are indicated for example by the lines 11 and 2-2, respectively, in Fig. 5. v Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal section through the blower house. Fig. 4 is a sectional plan of the blower house. Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the thawing building. The remaining figures are sectional details, Fig. 6 being a view through one of the outer walls; Fig. 7 a section through the intermediate or central wall shown; Fig. 8 a section through the other outer wall; Fig. 9 a section through the ceiling; and Fig. 10 a section through the roof. Figs. 6, 7, and 8, taken together, are in the nature of a horij zontal section through the building, with the size of the walls out of proportion tothe space between them.

by one or more intermediate wa sothat separate compartments are provided for It each train of cars and the heat is supplied and circulated through each compartment individually. This allows the cars to be run in or out one portion of the building independently of the other and enables, more ing interrupted at one'or more .pointsf' by shown in the drawing. The machinery in building to the middle. It will,of course, be understood that, for longer buildings, more blower houses will be employed, while, .ior the shorter building, one house might be suficient. .The end doors which may conveniently slide on ast each other, are indicated at 12 in this gure. The general"construction ofthe building is indicated in Fig. 1, and the details in Figs. 6 to 10. As-shown in these views, the

We divide our building longitudinally over, the supplying of air on both sides of consists of along, narrow structure having; a side wall 10, and a roof 11,-the roof,be-'- WAY SUPPLY com-l nux01 CLEVELAND,

each blower house 13 is designed to supply the hot air from the adjacent end of theskeleton of the building consists of sills,

sheets of compressed studs, purlins, joists and rafters. 15 and 15 indicate the outer sills and 16 the center sill. 2 0 indicates the studs for the outside walls and 22 the intermediate studs, these studs resting on the sills. These studs carry cross girders 23 at the ceiling and rafters 24 at the roof. Suitable purlins 17, 17 and 18 hold the studs at port the rafters. This skeleton construction, in itself, is a usual one in frame buildings. We avail ourselves of it, however, to carry the insulation in the walls and roof, as hereinafter described.

We complete the outer walls and insulate them by securing on r 20 sheets of compressed hair within water proof paper designated 30, and, outside of this, suitable siding 31, and on the inner face of these studs 20 we secure tongue and groove sheeting 32, and on the inner face of this, water proof paper, and on the inner side of this paper, sheets of plaster board 33 or other suitable material. We fill the space between the studs 20 with insulating material, as granulated cork, or other suitable substance 35. By the means described, we have provided a very tight insulating wall within the main wall necessary to support the roof, and without unduly enlarging 1t.

In the interior or center wall it is sufficient to provide tongue and groove sheeting 37 on opposite sides of the studs 22, and fill the space between the studs with ground cork or other insulating material 35. In the ceiling, we secure tongue and groove sheeting 39 above and 'below the joists 23, and on the upper and under faces respectively of the top and bottom sheetings we provide first water proof paper, whlch is then covered with'plaster board 40, or other suitable material. below the rafters 24 tongue and groove sheeting 43 with water-proof paper and plaster board 44 below it, while above we provide hair 45 within water proof paper surmounted by roof boards 46,

and above them a composition roof 47 Between the rafters we-provide our usual 11- in material of cork or similar substance 35. t will be seen from the above description that the walls and roof are thoroughly insulated internally, granu1ated cork, with its entrained air spaces, making a very satisfactory insulatlon. Furthermore, at the parts exposed to the outside weather, namely, the outer sides of the walls and the roof, we have provided, just insigie the outer member, the sheets of compressed hair which makes a further insulation. This construction is notonly eificient but very economical. We avail ourselves of the space between the ceiling and roof for the air ducts to and from the heater and blower system. As shown, this upper space, on each side of the central wall, is divided intothree longitheir upper ends and sup- 7 the outside of the studs In'the roof we providetudinal flues by means of the two vertical partitions 5O and 5l. The center flues 52, thus provided between the partitions 50 and 51, are designed to receive the air rising from around the cars through openings 55 in the ceiling and return such air to the blower. The air duct 53 between'the ar tition 50 and the center wall, and the duct 54 between the partition 51 and the outside wall, carry the hot air, which is conducted lengthwise of the building and at suitable intervals downwardly alon the respective walls and discharged near t e bottom of the cars.

For conducting the air downwardly from the main ducts, we provide a large number of vertical discharge ducts located on the inner faces of the outer walls and on both faces of the intermediate wall or walls. We make these ducts by means of supplemental studs or vertical strips (designated 57 and 58 respectively) secured to the inner faces of the walls, and sheets of material, preferably fire proof, as for example,plaster boards 59 and 60 secured to the other edges of these strips. studs is preferably surrounded by plaster boards 61. Accordingly, vertical flues 62, 62 and 63, 63 with heat-resisting walls or lining are provided serving to conduct the hot air downwardly from the flues 53 and 54.;.These vertical flues are 0 en at their lower portions toward the trac ay by the omission of the inner plaster boards at such points, as indicated in Fig. 1.

With the construction described, hot air blown through the flues 53 and 54 passes downwardl through the flues 62 and'63 and discharges eneath the ear bodies, and rising around the same and 'assing over the to s of the cars and disc argin through t e openings 55 in the ceiling, e ectively thaws the contents of the cars. delivered may easily be regulated by shutting off some of the vertical flues by laying boards across their upper ends.

Suitable drain pipes are provided for conducting away the water resultingfrom the thawin of the contents. These pipes are prefera ly soft tiles, and laid through the entire length of the building, alongside of the trackway. These are designated 66 in Figs. 1 and 2.

It now remains to describe the blower houses and the blowing apparatus which receives the air through the intermediate ducts 52 and returns it, heated, through they ducts 53 and 54. We have shown two blower houses 13 intermediately located. Each house has its floor just above the ceiling throu h the shed, so that the bottom portion 0 the blower room interru ts, and may communicate directly with tie horizontal flues 52, 53 and 54. One of the blower houses is shown in cross section in Fig. 2,

Each of the supplemental The amount of air BEST AVAILABLE cos and it is to be understood that this is illustrative of any of the blower houses.

At the blower houses, the outside studs 20 and the intermediate stud 22 are provided at their tops with longitudinal beams or purlins 70 and 71 which support the joists, preferably in the form of steel I-beams 72, and above these I-beams is a suitable flooring 73 of beams laid on edge. This makes a firm floor for the machiner Above the floor the walls are continued by the outside studs 75, and intermediate studs 76, and are connected at their upper ends by the ceiling joists 77 and the rafters 78. Suitable internal and external facings and insulating fillings are provided for the walls, as well as for the roof to properly retain the heat in the blower rooms. Details of this construction may be similar to that heretofore described for the train shed proper and will not be here repeated.

\Vithin each blower room is a suitable blower of any ap roved type. The blower shown is a centri ugal fan having a casing 80 with a central intake 82 and a tangential discharge. The fan within the blower casing is mounted on a suitable central shaft 81 and is suitably coupled with the engine 83, or other driving means. The tangential discharge end 85 of the blower casing is connected by a flaring hood 86 with a heater casing or enum chamber 87 in which are suitable COIlS 88 of steam pipe. These coils are not fully shown because they may be arranged in any desired manner, but it is to be understood that there are a sufficient number of them within the casing 87 to provide an effective radiator to heat the air discharged by the fan. Some of these coils may receive exhaust steam from the engine 83 and others be heated from the live steam plant, or other means for supplying heat may be em loyed, as desired.

The disc large end of the heating casing or plenum chamber 87 connects with the transverse duct 92 extending across the blower room near its ceiling. At the ends of this transverse duct are elbows 89 leading to the downtake fines 90 and intermediately there is a central downtake divided by a vertical partition 96 in its lower portion into two arallel flues. The downtakes 9O discharge tiirough the ports 91 in the end of the room into the hot air ducts 54, while the downtakes 95 discharge into the two hot air ducts 53. The return air ducts 52 discharge into the end of the blower room, and such returned air is taken directly from the room into the blower, through the central fan opcnin thereof, for example.

Provide in the several downtake ducts 90 and 95 mentioned are dampers 93, each adapted to vary or close the corresponding duct. These MIHOI'S are effective in enabling either hail of the building to receive the entire supply of heated air from all the blowers and heaters, the appropriate positioning of the dampers directing all the air to one side or the other as selected. This enables concentration of heat should the same be desired in case of very severe freezing or for other cause. The (l11l11)(:l$ are also useful, when not fully closed, In regulating the force of the draft through the respective flues.

Windows 14 in the blower house provide for the admission of outside air thereto, as desired, to refresh the circulating air and maintain the proper temperature. A steam 'et 99 discharging into the plenum chamer to keep the air properly moistened may be employed if desired. Doorways or other means, not shown, allow access to the blower rooms.

By means of reg'ulatin the steam pressure, the rotation of the Fan, the draft and the admission of outside air, the hot air delivered may be regulated as desired, and be thus maintained at a point high enough to be very effective without injuring the paint on the cars or doing other damage.

To provide for heating the train shed immediately below the blower house, we form suitable supplemental downtake fines 97 and 98 from the main downtakes 90, these downtakes 97 and 98 communicating with the outer and intermediate fines (52 and 63 which come beneath the blower house.

While we have shown two longitudinal train compartments in our building, it is t( be understood that the number may be increased at will. In fact, Figs. 6 and 8 shou one outside wall made thicker than blll other, such thickening being for the pur pose of enabling the wall of Fig. 8 to ac as an intermediate wall in case it is desire to increase the capacity for forming an other compartment alongside of such wall.

In the operation of our apparatus, on or more doorways at the end of the shed ar opened and a train of a number of cars i run in by gravity or motive power and the: the door is closed and the heatin startet' The heat enterin the closely confined com partment aroun the train rapidly thaw the contents of the cars and the water lit erated drains off through the drain. Th air of reduced temperature returning to th blower house is reheated and again dis charged into the heating room, and so 0 continuously. WVhen the cars are thawe out the doors are opened and the cars rt moved, by gravity or otherwise.

The time required to thaw the conten of a train varies, of course, with the degiw to which the contents is frozen, but, simp' by way of illustration, it may be said that. our load of. fifty tons of coal frozen soil may be thawed with this apparatus, -;uf ciently to be dumped, in two hours tin:

BEST AVAILABLE CG? By way of further illustration, we may note that we have found it etlicient, in an equipment having double tracks, each track carrying thirteen cars, to provide the radiators with steam under one hundred and twentyfive pounds pressure, and each of the four blowers delivering 40,000 cubic feet of air per minute, the final temperature of the air from the heater being 250 Fahrenheit, the air delivered in the train rooms 200 and the air returned to the blower rooms These items, however, are given simply by way of illustration, and the invention is in no manner confined thereto.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim is:

1. In an apparatus of the class described, the combination of a building having walls, a roof, and a ceiling, outgoing and return air conduits located within the building between the roof and ceiling, downwardly extending fines carried on the inner face of the wall from said outgoing conduit, and means for establishing a forced circulation of air from the return conduit to the outgoing conduit, and means for heating such air.

2. In an apparatus of the class described, the combination, with a shed havin walls and a roof, of two hot air conduits adjacent to the roof and to the walls respectively, and an intermediate "return conduit adjacent to the roof, downwardly extending fines from the two hot air conduits to the bottom portion of the building, there being openings from the upper portion of the building into the return conduit, means for continuously circulating the air from the return conduit to the hot air conduits, and means for heating such air.

3. In an apparatus of the class described, the combination, with insulated walls and an insulated roof, of a ceiling between the walls and below the roof, conduits for the passage of air between the ceiling and roof, downward fines leading from such conduits to the bottom portion of the buildings, and means for circulating air continuously throu h such conduits.

4. The combination, with a trackway, of a building housing the same and com rising insulated walls and an insulated roo and a ceiling, downwardly extending tlues along the opposite sides of the inner faces of the walls, said fines being open near their lower ends, two hot air ducts adjacent to the walls and between the roof and ceiling communicating with said fiues, an intermediate return duct between the hot air ducts and in communication with the upper portion of the room below the ceiling, means for forcing the air returning through the return duct to the hot air ducts, and means for heating such air.

5. In a thawing apparatus, the combination, with a trackway, of a building housing the same, outgoing and return air ducts with in the building, the outgoing duct. discharg ing near the bottom of the building am the return duct having intakes near the to of the building, a blower for forcing ai from the return duct to the returned out going duct, means for heating the air, ant a drain alongside of the trackway for carry ing away the water with which the hea liberates from the material being thawed bc Igore its discharge into the trackway chain 6. The combination of a t ackway, a com partment housing the same. horizontal hc air ducts in the upper part of such com partment adjacent to the outer walls, dowr take ducts leading from the hot air duct and extending downwardly along the sid walls of the building and open on their ir ner sides near the bottom, a return air (ILM communicating with the upper portion c the housing, and means for circulating th air continuously from the bottoms of th down-take fines across the cars to the 1'( turn duct and from the return duct to ll. hot air ducts.

7. The combination of a long narrow con artment having a trackway and adapted t inclose several cars, closures for the ends the compartment, air ducts located in tl upper part of the compartment adjacent 1 the roof, down-take fines connected wit those of the ducts which are for hot ai said fiues being open on their inner sid near the bottoms, a return duct located a jacent to the roof and communicating wii the upper portion of the room, a blower ar casing adapted to receive air from the r turn fiue and force it across a heater in the hot air ducts, and means for controllii the admission of fresh air.

8. In an apparatus of the class describe the combination of a building providing drying chamber having side walls and roof, insulating filling between the studs the side walls and between the rafters the roof, a hot air duct located along t under side of the roof, down-take fines cated along the inner side of a wall, a means for ieating air outside of the dryi chamber and forcing it through the hot duct and into the room through the do take fines.

9; In an apparatus of the class describ the combination of a building having wa a roof and a ceiling, the walls and roof ing insulated by filling material placed tween its respective studs and rafters, air fiues located within the space betw the ceiling and the roof and adjacent to walls, a return duct between the hot ducts and between the ceiling and l( downwardly extendin v fines formed on inner faces of the wal s and conmuinicat with the hot air ducts, said fines being 0 near their lower ends, a heater, and a blower adapted to force air across the heater and into the hot air ducts. 10. In an apparatus-of the class described,

the combination of a wall composed of-stud-' the combinatlon of a train compartment, a

railway track therein, hot air and return ducts above said compartment, a blower room above saidcompartment, the lower portion of said room being opposite the ends of the ducts referred to, and a blower in said room for forcing air through said ducts.

12. In an apparatus of the class described, the combination of a building having walls, a roof and a ceiling leaving a train com partment between the walls and below the ceiling, a blower room located above the ceiling and with its lower portion opposite the space between the roof and ceiling, air

ducts in such space, and a heater and blower in the blower room communicating with the air ducts.

13. In an apparatus of the class described, the combination of a building having walls, a roof and a ceiling leaving a train comparti'nent between the walls and below the ceiling, a blower room located abovethe ceiling and with its lower portion opposite the space between the roof and ceiling, air ducts in such space, a heater and blower in the blower room communicating with the air' ducts, down-take flues on the inner faces of the walls communicating with the ducts into which the air is 'forced, said flues being open at their lower ends, and there being a returnduct for the cooler air.

.14. In an apparatus of the class'described, the combination of a building having walls, a roof and a ceilin providing a train shed, a track in said she partitions dividing the space between the ceiling and roof into hot tions dividing the space between the ceiling and roofinto hot air and return ducts, a

blower room located above the train compartments with its floor adjacent to the ceiling, the lower portion of the roomopposite the ends of the said ducts, a blower in said room for receiving air from the return duct and returning it through the hot air duct, a heater for such air, and downward flues along the inner faces of the walls and open at their lower ends for discharging the heated air into the train room.

16. In an apparatus of the class described, I

the combination, with the side walls, roof and ceiling providing a train compartment between the walls'and below the ceiling, air

"ducts between the ceiling and roof, downwardly extending fines along the side walls of the train compartment, a track within the train compartment-adapted to carry'cars in position to be heated by the air discharged from said flue, openings from the upper portion of the train compartment to the return flue, a blower house located at an intermediate portion of the building above the ceiling and with its lower portion opposite the ends of, said fiues, .a heater in such blower house, a casing surrounding the heater and connecting with the hot air ducts, and .a blower for receiving air from the return duct and blowing it across the heater to the hot air ducts.

17. In an apparatus of the class described, the combination of a train compartment, air ducts located adjacent to the roof of such compartment, a blower room above the coinpartment with its lower portion opposite the ends of the ducts, means for forcing air from said room into the ducts, means for heating suchair, means for conveying such air downwardly at various points along the side walls of thebuilding, and additional means for conveying air downwardly to portions of the train compartment beneath the blower room.

18. The combination of a long narrow building adapted to house a. train of cars with walls on opposite sides of the track, a ceiling above such train and a roof above the ceiling, horizontal air ducts in the space between the roof and ceiling, vertical downwardly extending ducts along the inner races of the walls leading from such air ducts and open near their lower ends into the train compartment, a blower room located above the ceiling and intersecting the roof, whereby the lower portion of the room alines with the horizontal airducts, a blower .in said room for forcing air into said ducts,

side by side, individual hot air and return ducts therein, a blowing device adapted to circulate such air in the individual train sheds, means for concentrating the action of the blowing device to any shed, and means for heating the air.

20. In an apparatus of the class described, the combination of two train sheds side by side, individual hot air and return ducts for each shed, a blowing apparatus connected with the ducts of both sheds, and dampers adapted to restrict the act-ion'of such apparatus to either shed.

21. In an apparatus of the class described, the combination of two train sheds side by side, each shed having adjacent to its roof a pair of .hot air ducts and an intermediate return duct and having adjacent to its walls downtake flues connected with the hot air ducts, a blower room above the ceiling of the train shed and a pair of blowers in the blower room, conduits connecting the two blowers in opposite directions with the four hot air ducts mentioned, and dampers adapted to restrict the action of-each blower to either train shed as desired.

22. In an apparatus of the class described, the combination of a train shed having walls, roof and ceiling, a pair of hot air ducts located between the roof and ceiling adjacent to the Walls, an intermediate returnduct, an intermediately located blower room above the ceiling of the train shed, and a pair of blowers in said blower room discharging in opposite directions into the hot air ducts mentioned, said blowers being adapted to be fed by the air returned by the return ducts.

23. In an apparatus of the class described, the combination of a train shed, a blower room located at an intermediate point at the top of the train shed, a pair of blowers in said blower room discharging in opposite directions, means for conducting air from such blowers through the train shed and returning it to the blowers, and means for heating such air.

In testimony whereof, we hereunto afiix our signatures in the presence of two witnesses.

\VALTER S. NEIVHALL. SCOTT W. LINN. ALVA C. HEZLEP. Witnesses:

ALBERT HQ BATES, BRENNAN B. WEST. 

